Agriculture Minister’s dairy snub beyond the pale

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke will spend two days in Tasmania, but amazingly won’t be visiting one local dairy farm or personally consulting with one dairy farmer about the crisis facing the industry.

Yesterday, Minister Burke barely left the suburban surrounds of Hobart while today the Minister will be visiting the dairy-less Flinders Island.

Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry Richard Colbeck said Minister Burke and the Federal Labor Government needed to become properly engaged in what is Tasmania’s most critical agricultural issue.

“It is astounding the Federal Agriculture Minister can visit Tasmania and not personally visit local dairy farmers.

“Why is it that the local dairy sector gets the second best option of the Minister’s Canberra bureaucrats visiting the area, when the Minister himself is already in the State?

“Why haven’t Tasmania’s Labor MPs such as Sid Sidebottom and Dick Adams forced Minister Burke to visit dairy farms?

“Dairy farmers have been hit by a triple whammy in recent weeks of floods, power outages and the long term crippling milk price cuts.

“Any Agriculture Minister worth their salt would have made it a priority when visiting Tasmania to tour key dairy regions such as Circular Head or other parts of the North West.

Senator Colbeck said the reason Minister Burke was refusing to tour dairy regions may be due to the failure by the Federal Government put a cent on the table to assist dairy farmers affected by the drastic milk price cuts, severe climatic conditions and power outages.

“The high profile campaign run by local dairy farmers has been going for well over a month now, yet Minister Burke has not seen fit to dedicate any financial assistance to the farmers.

“In fact, neither the Minister nor the Prime Minister have responded to my calls, more than two weeks ago, for natural disaster and/or exceptional circumstances resources to be provided to dairy farmers.

“And on Tuesday, when the Prime Minister was asked about dairy matters, he palmed it off to Minister Burke – who now won’t properly engage on the issue.

“You have to ask, how serious is the Agriculture Minister about his portfolio and the plight of Tasmania’s dairy farmers?”
Senator Richard Colbeck Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry